Month: August 2019

The sun rises over the horizon, a beautiful blue – orange stripe across the top of the mountains, filling my view from the lounge window. Nestled in the couch under a comforter, a hot coffee and my cat, Felicity, who burrows next to me. The solitude and early morning beauty is an inspiration to put words to a page.

In the quiet characters spring to life., worlds explode, begging to be visible. Stories of lives pop up. Putting all of this together is an adventure that comes to life on paper, giving a place to escape. The adventure is to experience living with the characters that come to life.

Breathing in, I start typing and let the words flow. The story twists and turns, meshing together and when it is done the sun is high in the sky, rain falls softly, my flask of coffee is empty. The clock says its lunchtime, and my stomach rumbles in agreement. Something quick is eaten. My mind goes through the storyline, and possibilities come to life.

Tomorrow is another day to meet my characters. But for now … its goodnight.

Once over the procrastination course life seems to throw everything your way. All those lovely distractions that look so … wonderful …. is seen for what they are … distractions.

When the story starts to flow a storyteller lives at that moment. Focuses and so it has been for the past two weeks. The patience of my family has been amazing as the winter darkness has fallen and meals have been late or washing of clothes has been put on hold and draped all over the interior of our abode due to the amazing rain falling outside.

The end of the year is coming closer, social events start to pack up in the calendar, and the storyteller becomes overwhelmed to fit it all in. To the storyteller, not writing is like a pile of “lemons”. Let’s make lemonade!!!

Using the technology of the day this storyteller sets alarms to remind her of simple things like … Eat Lunch … Coffee / tea break … Do Laundry … but does it really work?

There are times when you are so involved in a scene that not every the jangle of an automated alarm penetrates the world you are in. Making Lemonade takes work …. so when there is silence in the house and no one is around this is the time for the storyteller makes a schedule of her own.

We all know that every good plan doesn’t always work out. Just when you have it working like you need it the lemons get added some more. Water goes off during the day and back on in the evening. Changing sleeping patterns, allowing work to be done during the night, and sleeping during the day is never easy and when writing becomes spontaneous … sleep becomes erratic.

Being a storyteller means life is not neat, predictable, easy or stacked in categories … it means taking a stack of lemonade and creating a type of lemonade that brightens the world around you, touches hearts and souls … and makes tomorrow something worth looking forward to.

When you finished a book, its out in the world and you’re hoping that someone likes your story … you look around … the first thing you do is breathe in deep and exhale. You get into the living of life and sorting of what was not seen to and still you mind is not truly back in this world. Its living in another world, with other people, doing what do, seeing what they see and somewhere inside you start to plan how to “escape” this world so you can write about the other.

Finding a place to disappear to, a place where there is silence … inside and out … a place where nature fills and inspire you to be the best in that moment. Passion to write the story on the page makes a writer retreat from the reality of life … for a few moments. But in those few moments worlds can be built, characters can be born, life can be lived in a different place and time. Cities can be built and destroyed in a moment. Love can be found, lost and found once more with a flip of a page and still,the writer scribbles on.

Getting back to the wonder of putting a story to a page is the reward for facing life around us. We do the piles of laundry, we de-clutter the shelves, cupboards and rooms that have somehow gotten out of hand and we face therapeutic tasks such as cleaning the greasy oven and fridge that would win a science fair. We do all of this so when we sit once more to spill our story to a page our minds are rested, de-cluttered and clear, our bodies have been worked, rested, walked and loved but most of all our souls have had time to reconnect with why we love doing what we do.

When the shelves are clear … the kitchen scrubbed until it sparkles … the cupboards sorted and the clothes clean. There is one more obstacle to battle…

The Procrastination Course!!

The door to the course beckons sweetly and tantalizes the writer to come in, take a class or two and even has the Excuse Manual on hand for you as you walk through the door. The challenge is to make sure you don’t linger in the comfortable chairs, play the games, read the books and watch the TV shows … well … not for too long. You may get an A, but the writer in you yearns to get back to the world it loves … to begin the journey once again.

Success on the journey, to begin the chapter of the story, or capture the new idea is always to remember where to find your groove, without it, the writer stumbles to a discordant tune and misses the beats needed to find the rhythm. So, here I am sitting at the beautiful seaside, listening to the waves crash, the gulls cry, the warm Winter sun wrapping me gently as the slight chill from the ocean fills my senses and wakes me to the possibilities of where my storybook life can go.

Let the music play, the dancers dance, I begin another journey of the heart.